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Gibbs Hopes to Cap 20 Years in Nascar With a Title

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The presentation at Joe Gibbs Racing last month began as a rambling remembrance of the race team’s humble beginnings.

As the audience grew restless and eyes began to glaze over, the program began to feel like an episode of “This is Your Life,” for the owner Joe Gibbs. Unbeknown to Gibbs, a former Washington Redskins coach, that is exactly what his team had planned to help honor Gibbs as he begins his 20th season in Nascar.

A steady stream of current and former employees were called up to share their stories about Coach. Gibbs had been unaware of how detailed a program his staff had planned, but he had a ball laughing at the memories accumulated since he started a one-car race team back with Dale Jarrett behind the wheel in 1992.

Gibbs has collected 88 wins and 3 titles in Nascar’s elite Cup eeries, and another 58 wins and a championship in the second-tier Nationwide Series. His organization has swelled to more than 400 employees and 3 full-time entries in the Cup Series.

And, as Joe Gibbs Racing heads into the unofficial start of its anniversary season — the exhibition Budweiser Shootout was Saturday night — Gibbs and his staff say they have three title contenders this year.

“For us to wind up here today, it’s a real thrill,” Gibbs said. “For me, personally, I think we’ve got our best years ahead of us.”

Few doubt that based on the strength of the team heading into the season.

Denny Hamlin seems to have snapped out of the depression he carried into the off-season after losing last year’s championship to Jimmie Johnson in the season finale. Kyle Busch, still glowing from his New Year’s Eve wedding, is hoping married life mellows the meltdowns that have plagued him.

And 20-year-old Joey Logano, entering his third full season in Nascar’s highest level, has shown enough improvement that he is considered a contender for the 12-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup championship field.

“I feel like there’s a lot of ways that people try to razz you or try to get into your head, but you have to forget about that stuff and know what’s important,” Busch said. “We’re trying to look forward at making the most of this year and try to bring home a championship for J.G.R. in their 20th year.”

Photo

From left, J. D. Gibbs, Tony Stewart and Joe Gibbs. The Gibbs racing team last won a Nascar championship in 2005.Credit
Jason Smith/Getty Images for Nascar

Joe Gibbs Racing’s last championship came in 2005, when Tony Stewart won his second title. He left the organization three years later to form his own team, and Gibbs drivers have tried hard to replace him.

Hamlin has come the closest, flipping a switch in 2009 and to improve his performance and go into last year as a popular pick to dethrone Johnson. Despite a career year in which he had eight wins and entered the finale with a 15-point lead over Johnson, Hamlin fell short and settled for second in the final standings.

It stung badly, and Hamlin moped his way through December.

He vowed to clean the slate before arriving in Daytona, and signs point to Hamlin making another run at the championship.

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“I think this year, I’m more anxious than I was in any of the years in the past, but I’m also more calm about it,” Hamlin said. “I just have an understanding for how things work now. I understand that you can’t panic in the first three or four races. You’ve got to just work your way into the season.”

He admitted he had probably been his own worst enemy in pursuit of a championship, a bid that is seemingly derailed each year by one of his many on-track tantrums or off-track eruptions.

Although Busch has won 15 races in the three years he has been with Gibbs, he has yet to finish higher than eighth in the standings.

“I think this can be a fresh start,” he said. “I’m married now, and while I don’t think that’s going to be the big calming effect everyone seems to think it will be, I don’t disagree that I have sometimes stood in my own way. We have all the tools to reach our potential, it’s just a matter of not letting anything get in the way.”

For the first time since Stewart left, the team is solid top to bottom.

Logano made enormous strides in the final few months of last season. He began to take a stand against on-track bullying from veteran drivers, and his communication with the crew chief Greg Zipadelli improved. And, Logano was on a pace of sorts to win the season-opening Daytona 500 after finishes of seventh, sixth, fifth, fourth and third heading into the season finale.

An incident with Juan Pablo Montoya denied Logano the second-place finish he needed to continue the trend, but it also toughened him up again for what could be a bumpy ride toward a Chase berth.

“We are definitely coming in here with a lot of confidence and the feeling that we can do it for sure,” Logano said. “We definitely want to do it, there’s no reason why we can’t do it.”

A version of this article appears in print on February 13, 2011, on Page SP7 of the New York edition with the headline: Gibbs Hopes to Cap 20 Years in Nascar With a Title. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe